Kendra Sunderland was an 18-year-old college student at Oregon State University (OSU) who, in need of cash and disliking how she was treated at low-paying waitressing jobs, discovered that she could earn a lot of money via an online private webcam show by some company called ReptCams, an adult chat site.
So, Kendra Sunderland goes about the action of going to a cubicle at the OSU library and making some rather racy and revealing poses in the act of trying to turn on the viewer on the other end of the camera and at the website. It worked, as Kendra Sunderland reportedly made $700 during that session. That’s far more in one hour than she would have made over eight hours taking orders at a restaurant. Moreover, and something to note, she said, according to various reports, that the online viewers were nice to her, versus someone she worked for yelling at her because they were having a bad day.
I’ve seen the video that resulted and it’s hot and certainly porn level, but one thing in it is obvious: Kendra Sunderland takes great steps to hide her actions and there’s not one person around her In fact, the funniest part of the resulting video is her ducking and looking to make sure she’s not caught. That means her intent was anything but to have a public show. Moreover, there’s no evidence that she intend to “make a video” rather than to tease a viewer in what she believed was a private act.
Moreover, and contrary to reports, Kendra Sunderland did not act with the intent to ‘make a video’ – she was using a communications system to engage with a private person or group. But she did not have the intent of making anything she did go public. This was not something she uploaded to YouTube – others did.
So what happens? One or more of the viewers elected to act outside of the terms of service of the webcam show and distribute the resulting video. It goes viral. Then, some (in my opinion) sexually immature, holier-than-thou, OSU student reportedly named Kaitlyn Yarnell (who’s now a public figure I can judge without fear of reprisal) reportedly takes a downloaded copy of the video to the police. The Oregon State Police.
So, guess what? Kendra Sunderland get arrested for the silly charge of “public indecency”. The problem with the claim is that even though she was in a public area, no one saw her. Moreover, great effort was taken by others to make the obviously private, public. Kendra later said that she did not intend for her actions to be made public. She should not be punished because some ass hole did, and worked to do so.
AND THIS UPDATE on Kaitlyn Yarnell:
According to Inquistr Kaitlyn Yarnell says she did not report Kendra Sunderland’s actions to Oregon State Police. Yarnell said the complaint was sent to the Oregon State Police, using the email application on her computer, by one of her seven OSU female roommates. Yarnell said the email was sent from her computer without her knowledge. Yarnell has denied any and all involvement. Yarnell reportedly said her OSU roommates learned of the video when members of an OSU fraternity, began sharing the video on social media.
With that, good luck to the prosecution in getting a real live witness to testify at jury trial.
Thus, this is not a cut-and-dried case at all. Any good criminal defense lawyer should be able to get this slam dunked. But I also can’t believe the DA would bother to waste tax dollars with this garbage to begin with. Beause of the nature of what she did, Kendra Sunderland has already been punished by the outing of what she believed was a private act. She’s right and someone’s dislike for what she was doing should not be turned into the basis for her being jailed. The bottom line is her act was private and she did not make it public.
But I also think the other problem is we have to stop over-reacting to the display of sexual imagery. In other words, grow up.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.